Personal audio-sets, commonly known as headphones, earphones, headsets, and the like, are gaining in popularity. The typical audio-set includes a frame containing an earphone which is usually positioned over or in a wearer's ear. In cases where the audio-set is a headset, a microphone is also typically positioned on the frame near the wearer's mouth.
It is important that the frame of the audio-set securely hold these components in their proper places with respect to the wearer, without being unduly heavy and without causing discomfort to the wearer. Historically, the frames of personal audio-sets have included a headband that the wearer positions over or behind their head to hold an earphone portion over one or both ears. However, some headband-type personal audio-sets inadvertently compress the wearer's head and/or ears thereby causing discomfort, particularly when the personal audio-set is worn for extended periods.
More recently, personal audio-sets have been mounted to a wearer without using a headband. For example, headphones have been clipped around a wearer's ear as shown in Marshall (U.S. Pat. No. 5,625,171). However, these types of mounts are relatively bulky structures and some wearers feel discomfort supporting the personal audio-set in this matter. In addition, most ear clip designs do not easily lend themselves to being worn over either a wearer's left or right ear.
Also, some personal audio-set rely on ear plug-type mounts, which are also commonly known as ear bud-type mounts, that are either physically wedged either into the wearer's ear canal or hooked on the intertragal notch of the wearer's ear as shown in Nagayoshi et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,544,253). However, the size of a wearer's ear and ear canal differ greatly between wearers. Accordingly, different sized ear plugs must typically be offered to account for these differences in ear and ear canal sizes. Moreover, since the entire weight of the assembly is supported by such a small portion of the ear, these types of mounts feel uncomfortable for some wearers.
In addition, in order to optimize the sound qualities of the audio-set, it is desirable for the sound pressure producing device, such as the headphone driver or other audio transducer, to be pneumatically coupled to the tympanic membrane (also known as the “eardrum”) via the external auditory meatus (also known as the “ear canal”). However, many typical ear bud-type mounts permit an excessive amount of pneumatic leakage between the ear bud and the wearer's ear. This excessive leakage is usually perceived as a loss in the low frequency region of the sound transmission spectrum.
More recently, some manufacturers of ear bud-type mounts have attempted to reduce this pneumatic leakage by completely occluding the ear canal with the ear bud. While such occlusion blocks a large portion of background noise, they also tend to increase the passive attenuation of the system. Accordingly, such designs are often perceived as unnatural by the wearer. In addition, under some circumstances, such as when using a headset in an office or while driving, it is undesirable to completely block all ambient noise by occluding the ear canal with the ear bud. Accordingly, such ear bud designs tend to be undesirable for many uses.